Harold W Andersen

Andersen spent nearly a quarter-century (1966-1989) as publisher of the Omaha World-Herald. He became an international leader in the struggle for freedom of the press, heading the World Press Freedom Committee. He became the first American to serve as president of the International Federation of Newspaper Publishers and the only Nebraskan to serve as chairman of the American Newspaper Publishers Association. The Andersens were important benefactors of the University of Nebraska, and served as co-chairmen of Campaign Nebraska, which raised more than $727 million in private support for the university. The Lincoln building that houses the College of Journalism and Mass Communication was dedicated as Harold and Marian Andersen Hall. Harold Andersen retired as World-Herald publisher in 1989. When Omaha investor Warren Buffett and his Berkshire Hathaway company purchased The World-Herald in 2010, Andersen wrote approvingly. Harold Wayne Andersen was born in Omaha on July 30, 1923, the youngest of four children of Andrew B. and Grace R. Andersen, who raised their family mainly at 8320 N. 28th Ave. He attended the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, where he became editor of the student newspaper and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1945. Andersen majored in English, with a minor in journalism, intent on teaching in college. He received a fellowship to study for a master’s degree at the University of California-Berkeley, and spent a summer as a reporter for the Lincoln Star. That job, at $25 a week, hooked him on journalism. He didn’t go to Berkeley, instead working at the Lincoln paper for a year. In 1946, Frederick Ware, managing editor of The World-Herald, hired Andersen away for $45 a week. He became as comfortable hunting in Sowbelly Canyon in northwest Nebraska as he was golfing at Augusta National Golf Club or in Scotland or attending overseas gatherings of the world’s newspaper publishers.